Prep Boys Swimming: Hononegah wins NIC-10 championship

Saturday

Feb 15, 2014 at 8:23 PMFeb 15, 2014 at 8:23 PM

By Adam J. KradleRockford Register Star

ROCKFORD - By winning a combined 11 of the 12 events, Hononegah and Boylan dominated Saturday's the NIC-10 boys swimming and diving meet at Jefferson High School. But only the Indians can lay claim to the conference title after finishing with 283 points, 50 more than Boylan.

Hononegah won seven events and placed second in two others on its way to the championship.

"It feels really good," Hononegah junior Jacob Ainsworth said. "I think all of our guys were doing really good and we were just really prepared."

"My boys did well," Hononegah coach Christine Kuspa said. "They swam hard. We gave them expectations for the meet and they all met them. We're in the middle of getting ready for a sectional meet so I thought they came out and swam and I'm excited to see what they do next weekend."

Ainsworth saw the most success of any individual in the meet by being the fastest in the 100 breaststroke and the 200 individual medley, and he was also part of the Indians' winning relay teams in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle.

"Today I felt great," Ainsworth said. "I'm really hoping to see if this pays off next week."

Outside of Ainsworth, Boylan's Tyler Pidde had probably the next-best day in the pool. The freshman showed he's also going to be a force this postseason as he won the 200 and 500 freestyle races and also helped the Titans to a win in the 400 freestyle relay.

"We knew he was a talented swimmer coming in and being a good age group swimmer is one thing but being able to swim against guys that are four years older than you that are physically mature is a big difference," Boylan coach Brian McGuire said. "He really stuck to his game plan. We really talked to him about being focused, one swim at a time and I was real proud of him. We're hoping that this is just a buildup to things that come up because he's just got a lot of fast swimming ahead of him."

Johnny Bravo's win in the 50 freestyle accounted for the Titans' other victory. Boylan also took second in five other events, but it wasn't quite enough to overtake Hononegah. Still, McGuire was pleased with his team's performance as it readies for next week's big test.

"We swam really well today," McGuire said. "We're resting for sectionals, that's our big meet, qualifying for state, so today was kind of like a gut check. We wanted to see where we were. We knew Hononegah was going to bring a lot of good, quality swims and they had a very strong lineup. Their kids swam really well."

Behind Hononegah and Boylan, Guilford was third with 188 points. Auburn took fourth with 178, and accounted for the only first-place finish that the Indians and Titans didn't snag. Knights sophomore Connor Bullard beat Boylan's Mikey Rodriguez by 2.58 seconds in the 100 backstroke.

Auburn was followed in the team standings by Freeport (151), Belvidere co-op (128), East (73), Harlem (65) and Jefferson (45).

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.